


Forever Lost Child

by merryfortune



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 13:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20779445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryfortune/pseuds/merryfortune
Summary: The five remaining Lost Incident Victims visit the final resting place of the sixth member who shall remain forever lost.





	Forever Lost Child

Using only a name, they were able to track down his final resting place. No one was bold or brave enough to reach out to the family directly, instead they relied on underhanded means to ascertain where the grave would be located. Then, they all agreed on a date and now, said date had arrived and there was no turning back; minds couldn’t be changed or disagreed upon as they had made a promise.

So, the five of them gathered outside the cemetery. Between each other, they murmured exchanges of placid greetings. Yusaku, Takeru, and Jin had arrived as a group whereas Miyu and Spectre had made their way to the spot individually. It was weird to be altogether, and yet incomplete, as they were when they were as a group.

It was an unusually warm day with a breeze. It seemed unusually appropriate given what they knew about the person they were visiting. And in such weather, they were all dressed appropriately in their nicest clothes and as appropriately as one could be on a hot day to visit the grave of someone they knew intimately and yet, not at all.

To begin with, as they stared down the gates until someone – Spectre – pushed it aside so the others may pass, it was easy to be solemn. Once they passed through, uncertain of where they were going save for a name and a subsection, it became difficult to maintain a façade. It began with Spectre, who made insensitive comments to peers who couldn’t care less. After he, it was Yusaku who took solace in being able to quieten Spectre; scolding him for his aforementioned sensitivity and then to Jin who took glee in being able to scold Yusaku for being so one-track minded about this sort of thing. Takeru, however, took it all in stride, happy to listen to their different perspectives. At least until it then wound around to Miyu.

To cope with this strange grief and mourning, Miyu’s bravado began to show even though it was apparent by the wobble in her lips that she was going to be the first to break. But, instead, she pushed that weakness onto Takeru. He was an easy target for her teasing, especially in a cemetery on such a hot day; murmuring and whispering to him that even though it was completely and utterly bright out, now was the perfect time for supernatural phenomena to take place. Including and especially the appearance of ghosts. And even though she could not have made it more obvious that it was all in jest, Takeru cowered at her talk regardless. But she found it unsatisfying, so she soon quit.

After Miyu quit teasing Takeru and after Spectre quit making his inopportune comments and after Jin and Yusaku were able to nit-pick about said comments, it was like a black cloud had come over the group whilst they wandered through the cemetery. Yet, the sky itself was cloudless. As they continued through, a creeping sadness entered their veins, their thoughts, and it was Jin who found the gravestone they were looking for.

It looked like every other in the area, though perhaps shinier. Recently cleaned, it seemed as it shone so brightly in the reflective sun. And burned incense scraps remained as well as some flower petals from dried and discarded bouquets, long carried off in the wind. The other gravestones around it, to commemorate the lives of yet more strangers, were darker in comparison; not quite as well loved. It was strange seeing the tall post to commemorate the short life of this boy. It was harrowing to stare down and each of them stared it down, memorising the curves of the sculpted calligraphy and the way it portrayed the name.

Miyu was the one who broke such an unrelenting, clinical gaze first. Her eyes sealed shut and her jaw slackened. She bawled. Completely and utterly without inhibition with jagged, broken sobs which hiccupped in the otherwise still air. The boys listened to her, feeding off her open misery and gaining catharsis to that as they evaluated their own emotions in front of this gravestone.

Yusaku licked his lips. “Someone should… We should, um…”

Miyu continued to bawl and as Spectre was closest to her, she decided to cling to him. He made a sour expression, no doubt because her face was on his breast and she was a snotty, wet girl, but he placed a protective hand on her shoulder whilst she hugged him tightly. But Spectre relented regardless; his stern, annoyed expression softening to something akin to regret but it could have been petulance. He had been huffy all day as he already had to show some consideration today by bringing respectful flowers and now, he had to deal with this.

“Look, over there, we can, um,…” Jin mumbled, his voice was a louder outburst than he had intended and that made him feel awkward but he brushed it off as best as he could; he pointed to a faucet and bucket they could use. They were located beside the next block of gravestones.

“We’ll handle it then.” Takeru said and he shot a sympathetic look at Spectre who rejected it with a roll of his eyes. Though, his hand betrayed him as he had begun to pet Miyu who was still bawling on his chest.

So, between the three of them, they got to work. Yusaku filled the bucket with Takeru whilst Jin, with a dour smile, removed the remains of flowers and incense already on the altar. After that, Jin stepped aside and let the other two clean. Spectre watched and bit his tongue. That’s not how he would have done it, but his attention was elsewhere, comforting Miyu.

Spectre especially had to bite his tongue when Yusaku and Takeru awkwardly decided that they ought to let this gravestone – and consequently, the spirit of – know who they were. What they were to this boy, now passed on. And their connection to his subsequent death. Their musings, so sweet and polite, were not how Spectre would have enlightened this monument to this person, but his experiences weren’t universal. And especially not within his peer group. If they could be called that at all, in his opinion.

“We’re sorry about what happened,” Yusaku mumbled whilst he scrubbed, “the other Ignis are really sweet, we swear.”

“Mm, Flame’s really nice! You would have liked him.” Takeru said, deciding all on his own the likes and dislikes of this stranger who they could wrought however they felt, based on what little information remained of him online or in accessible memory.

Jin’s lips twitched as he listened to the two of them exchange conversation directed at the marble whilst they cleaned. Soon, they were satisfied. Miyu, in the meantime, had calmed down enough to face her fears and how they congregated. She smiled weakly, murmuring a greeting and even an apology for being rude. Spectre made no such gesture, instead watching the scene as though he were uninvited.

“I’ve still got the incense and stuff.” Takeru said. “And Spectre, you should give him the flowers.”

“Understood.” Spectre quietly replied.

Takeru shuffled closer to Jin and Spectre slotted in. He placed the spider lilies on the altar and made sure to leave room for Takeru so he could light the incense. He easily set up the spikes of incense but screwed around with the matches for longer than need be. But, soon enough, a flame was sparked, and the dry smell of the cemetery had to compete with the smell of vanilla and something else. Something smoky.

After that, it didn’t feel like there was much else to do. Strangers were strangers no matter how intertwined their pasts were.

Takeru lifted himself to his feet. Jin and Yusaku followed suit and the five of them found themselves in a line as they clustered around the boy’s gravestone. As strangers. And as something far more intimate than friendship. Thus, fingers intertwined. Interlocked and slipped through personal boundaries which existed differently outside of this place in the cemetery.

Jin, to the far right, and Spectre, to the far left, were the bookends. Miyu, who still clung quite close to Spectre in her grief, took his right hand. Takeru took her left whilst Yusaku took Takeru’s right. With Jin being left with one hand empty and one hand full of Yusaku’s. And together, they silently looked onto the gravestone, shining in the sunshine and withstanding the warm breeze. Again, both were far too appropriate based on what they knew.

Each of the five found it confronting to be as they were. Securely interlocked with one another, yet so alone in their thoughts, in their heads. Mortality had always been on their minds. Yusaku, Takeru and Jin, honestly not thinking they would ever grow to be the ripe old age of sixteen and yet they had and were finding the courage inside of themselves to do something good with the time that they had. As compared to Spectre who wanted to remain in those six months as a child eternally yet, since he had not, aspiring to live to the same age as his darling Ryoken-sama sans one day because he couldn’t think of anything worse than having to outlive his master. And then again, compared to Miyu who aspired to live as long as she could, to prove the doctors wrong and to grow out of the sense of her mother’s well-meaning smothering.

Yet, the gravestone in front of them, was a stark reminder that accidents happened. Life existed in randomness, a sort of entropy one got used to until something dire or radical happened. Though, his death wasn’t accident. It hadn’t been a quirk of chaos. It had been planned. But, the sentiment of the alienating sense of death could happen any time, anywhere, and to anyone remained underlying.

And that evaluation of their mortality was enough to break them all down. Yusaku was the first to cry out of the five of them. His tears streamed down his face with a rare vulnerability from him as he had spent so long trying to be strong and, for some time, had succeeded in it, at least publicly. Miyu bawled openly once more whilst Spectre shed reluctant tears, hiding them despite the futility of such a thing. Takeru who’s sobs were choked up and of tears which burned hot as they streak down his face, hideous in how twisted it became whilst grimacing. Finally, there was Jin who cried like some faint spirit with his tears more akin to omens than droplets of water and salt with a palatably unreadable expression, so blank and yet so revealing.

Eventually, the five were content in their mourning. They had shed their tears and made themselves known to the gravestone. And thus, they bid the gravestone bittersweet farewell. As they turned their back on it, lingering close to one another with the sense that they would never truly feel complete. They were the victims of the Lost Incident and they were supposed to be six – not five – and therefore, one of them would always be lost. And none of them liked that sentiment or how it was an omen for the future because sooner or later, five would become four and four to three and three to two and two to one and then, the unthinkable.

But, for now, such grim matters did not have to be heeded as for now, they were five and their dear, unknown friend who was permanently the forever lost child.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my farewell to VRAINS piece. The finale had my heart going in so many different directions but it was so good! And I want to thank VRAINS for connecting me to so many new people. I look forward to the next series but VRAINS has a very special place in my heart <3


End file.
